A valuable assortment of teacher/student duets in their original form written by teachers and composers during the 18th and 19th centuries. Arranged in order of difficulty, the student parts are limited to a single five-finger position and fall primarily within the grand staff reading range. Each book includes works by such composers as Diabelli, Gurlitt, Bercucci, Wohlfahrt, Berens and others.

Beautifully presented and intelligently paced, the Lesson Books combine unusually attractive music and lyrics. The books feature note reading, rhythm reading, sight-reading and technical workouts. Each piece on the CD was recorded at a performance tempo and a slower practice tempo.

Continuing the expansion of note-reading skills begun in Levels 1Aa2A, this book includes melodic and harmonic 7ths and octaves to aid the student with moving freely around the keyboard. New items include the introduction of C and G major scales, as well as three-note V7 chords in C and G. Dotted quarter and eighth-note rhythm patterns are added to other rhythms of gradually increasing complexity. Each piece on the CD was recorded at a performance tempo and a slower practice tempo.

Beautifully presented and intelligently paced, the Lesson Books combine unusually attractive music and lyrics. The books feature note reading, rhythm reading, sight-reading and technical workouts. Each piece on the CD was recorded at a performance tempo and a slower practice tempo.

Lesson Book 2 starts as pre-reading, then moves to reading on the staff. After a review, the new concepts taught are: Dotted quarter note and 4/4 time, 4/4 time, Mezzo-forte, Staff and note reading, Steps and skips, Grand staff. New notes taught are F and G in the LH and RH, completing the Middle C position.

Lesson Book 1 is pre-reading. Concepts taught are: How to sit at the piano; Correct hand position; High and low; Loud and soft (forte and piano); Keyboard topography; Bar line and measure, Quarter, half, whole notes and rests; and Repeat signs. The first pieces in the book are played on the black keys. Later in the book, C D E for the RH and C B A for the LH (Middle C position) are taught with letter notes (the name of the note is written inside the note head).

Beautifully presented and intelligently paced, the Lesson Books combine unusually attractive music and lyrics. The books feature note reading, rhythm reading, sight-reading and technical workouts. Each piece on the CD was recorded at a performance tempo and a slower practice tempo.